Nepal

In Nepal, HI aims to enhance access to education for all children, including children with disabilities, and to enable people with injuries or disabilities to benefit from rehabilitation sessions and inclusion services.

Our actions

A little boy fitted with prosthesis is playing football Humanity & Inclusion Nepal Projects

Prabin, 6, lives in southeastern Nepal with his parents. Born without the lower part of his right leg, his prosthesis has changed his life. | © Amul Thapa / HI

Since the earthquake in 2015, HI Nepal has diversified its activities, focusing on health, rehabilitation and access to services, in particular inclusive livelihoods, inclusive education and livelihood recovery. The programme is currently running nine projects.

HI Nepal’s flagship project has always been rehabilitation. The aim of this project is to establish a sustainable, integrated, public-private rehabilitation system to improve the mobility and functional independence of people with disabilities.

Today, the portfolio of thematic areas has been broadened. The teams are notably developing their experience in the field of Inclusive Education in order to improve access, participation and achievement in education for excluded children, both in and out of school, with a specific focus on caste, disability, ethnicity and gender.

HI is also developing projects in economic inclusion, as well as in inclusive disaster risk reduction to increase the climate resilience of the most at-risk communities and groups, including people with disabilities, through inclusive, community-based adaptation and climate smart local governance in selected municipalities of Nepal.

Background

Map of Humanity & Inclusion's interventions in Nepal

Over 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.

The livelihoods of three-quarters of the population depend on agriculture. The economic development was hindered by the conflict between the government authorities and Maoist insurgents (1996-2006), who are today integrated into the democratic process. This conflict left 12,000 dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. It also left many veterans of the war with disabilities.

Today the country is working towards democracy and is in a period of relative stability.

In Nepal, disability is primarily considered a social issue. It is rarely addressed as a public health issue or taken into account in education, health and economic development. An estimated 78% of children with disabilities are not in education (Barriga, 2011) and only 1% of the population with disabilities in Nepal has access to employment.

Nepal has been severely hit by COVID-19, although the situation has improved more recently.

Number of HI staff members: 61
Date the programme opened: 1996